Pick up to 4 launch vehicles to compare side-by-side. State lives in the URL — share the link and the comparison loads exactly as you left it.
The global launch market reached $14.1 billion in 2024 — up 34% since 2021.
| Attribute | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Company | Firefly Aerospace | CASC / SAST | Rocket Lab |
| Country | 🇺🇸 USA | 🇨🇳 China | 🇺🇸 USA |
| Status | Active | Active | In Development |
| Vehicle class | Small | Medium | Medium |
| Propellant | RP-1 / LOX | UDMH / N₂O₄ (hypergolic all stages) | CH₄ / LOX |
| Reusable | No | No | Yes |
| Stages | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| First flight | 2021 | 1992 | 2026 |
| Payload to LEO | 1,030 kgas of [1]SSO capacity ~630 kg | 3,500 kgas of [1]SSO capacity ~1,300 kg; standard LEO 3,500 kg | 13,000 kgas of [1]Expendable; ~8,000 kg reusable with first-stage return ↑ Best |
| Payload to GTO | — | — | — |
| Height | 29 mas of [1] | 41.06 mas of [1] ↑ Best | ~40 mas of [1] |
| Liftoff mass | 54 tas of [1] | 232 tas of [1] | ~481 tas of [1] ↑ Best |
| Success rate | 43%as of [2]3/7 full successes (FLTA003 Jul 2023, FLTA005 Dec 2024, FLTA007 Mar 2026) + 2 partial successes + 2 failures through FLTA007 | 98.7%as of [2]~77/78 successes; one known failure (CZ-2D Y7, Mar 1995 upper-stage anomaly) ↑ Best | — |
| Total flights | 7as of [2] | ~78as of [2] ↑ Best | — |
| Cost / kg LEO | ~$14,500/kgas of [1]Based on ~$15M list price / 1,030 kg LEO ↓ Cheapest | — | — |
| Summary | Firefly Aerospace's two-stage small-lift rocket powered by four Reaver engines at sea level and one Lightning engine in vacuum. Also provides launch services for NASA's CLPS programme (Blue Ghost lander launched on Falcon 9). FLTA007 'Stairway to Seven' succeeded Mar 11, 2026. | China's most-used sun-synchronous and polar orbit workhorse for small-to-medium military and commercial Earth observation satellites. Launched from Jiuquan and Taiyuan. Uses storable hypergolic propellants for high launch-readiness but produces toxic exhaust. | Rocket Lab's medium-lift reusable rocket targeting the $100B constellation replenishment market. Uses a 'hungry hippo' fairings design that opens at the top rather than traditional clamshell separation. First flight delayed to Q4 2026 after a Jan 2026 propellant tank test anomaly. |
28 launch vehicles across 10 countries — active, retired, and in development — with primary-source citations from manufacturer user guides and agency press kits. Pure URL state: bookmark or share the link and the comparison reproduces exactly.